Italy first as a romantic destination

Italy came first as a romantic destinations in a survey by flight comparison site Skyscanner.net. The UK was seen as more of a turn-off than turn-on when it came to romantic destinations.

France and the Caribbean took second and third place respectively.

Spain followed in fourth place, but took the top spot as the favoured country for a holiday romance with one in five of Brits who had a holiday fling admitting to doing so after boarding flights to Spain – though none of these holiday romances took place with a Spaniard.

Despite the UK itself being thought an unromantic destination, 49 per cent of those who admitted to having a holiday romance actually shared the fling with another person from the British Isles – 37 per cent with English, six per cent with Irish and five per cent with Scots.

The most romantic act – that of the marriage proposal – also threw up some interesting results when users were asked where they would most like this to happen.

Surprisingly, and in spite of the UK’s otherwise unromantic performance, Scotland was voted as the fourth most appealing place for a Valentine’s Day proposal with “camping under the stars in Scotland” even beating a visit to New York’s Empire State Building – location of the classic scene in movie Sleepless in Seattle. England did not fare so well with a cruise on the Thames coming in the bottom three, perhaps showing that it is England that is viewed as an unromantic destination rather than the UK as a whole. However the romantic heavyweight countries of Italy and France took the top spots, with nearly a quarter of all respondents in the survey saying they would choose a pair of flights to Italy followed by a gondola ride in the romantic Italian city of Venice as their ideal spot for a proposal.

Top destinations for a Valentine’s Day proposal:

1. Gondola in Venice
2. Eiffel Tower, Paris
3. Spanish Steps, Rome
4. Under the stars on a camping trip, Scotland
5. Empire State Building, New York

Top 10 most romantic countries:

1. Italy (33 per cent)
2. France (19 per cent)
3. Caribbean (nine per cent)
4. Spain ( four per cent)
5. Greece (four per cent)
6. Thailand (three per cent)
7. UK (three per cent)
8. South Africa (two per cent)
9. Austria (two per cent)
10. Croatia (two per cent)